Two candidates vie for CNM District 1 position
Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of stories on the candidates running for the Central New Mexico Community College Governing Board.
A longtime elected official of college and public school boards is running for re-election as a Central New Mexico Community board member against a retired Albuquerque police officer and current Albuquerque Public Schools staffer.
Pauline Garcia, 68, previously has served on the CNM Governing Board and was most recently elected in 2013. She has worked as a staffer for Qwest, PNM and the New Mexico Gas Co. She is now semi-retired.
Challenger Robert Chavez, 57, retired as an Albuquerque Police Department lieutenant following 21 years of service and currently works in the APS’ maintenance and paint operation division.
District 1 is home to the West Side campus and includes the West Mesa. Both said CNM will face challenging financial times.
The state appropriation for CNM was cut from $56 million to roughly $53.2 million, or about a 5 percent cut, according to CNM spokesman Brad Moore. The school’s current budget is $226.9 million.
As of fall 2016, CNM served
24,781 students across several campuses in the Albuquerque metro area.
Garcia said the declining funds pose a challenge for the school, and she said she wasn’t sure if the state would ever bring back revenues from oil and gas. To cut costs in the past, Garcia said the board culled course offerings that weren’t putting students in jobs.
And she said raising tuition wasn’t a good answer to the school’s budget woes.
“We do not want to price an education at CNM out of reach from people who really need to be there,” she said.
Garcia said the goal is to increase enrollment, which means more tuition dollars. She said CNM needs to convince students a CNM education will lead to a job.
Garcia attended both the University of New Mexico and the University of Phoenix, though she does not have a degree.
Chavez, who has a degree in criminal justice from Wayland Baptist University, would like to work with state lawmakers to expand the lottery scholarship eligibility period so new students have a chance to adjust to college.
Currently, New Mexico students have to enroll in a state college straight out of high school to be eligible for the award.
“Let’s figure something out to make sure these students are getting every opportunity and every chance to fulfill that goal,” he said.
Chavez, whose daughter attended CNM, also proposed bringing some athletic programs to CNM to attract students who might otherwise attend an out-ofstate school to compete in sports.
He said the school should continue to build on its technical and vocational training programs because not everybody wants a traditional college experience.